19.3.11

The independent culture in Madrid does not only coexist but also is closely interwoven with institutional or private cultural initiatives. It is non-profit and independent and its producers act with the belief that their activities, although mainly invisible to the mainstream, are nevertheless necessary for a vital development of the cultural life of their city, community or country.

The independent culture is permanently taking risks in producing vanguard and experimental cultural events, proposals that eventually end up feeding the commercial or institutional cultural circuit.

Compared with the rigidity of the institutions, independent culture is flexible: it allows the realization of cultural productions, which would be impossible to organize within institutional or commercial circuits.

Flexibility, the predisposition to assume risks and the contact with the street are the three fundamental ingredients in order to promote vivid, contemporary and experimental projects. The existence of these projects is actually one of the fundaments of the entire machinery of cultural production in a city or country.

The brutal retrenchments in our country are affecting all forms of culture and are leading to a pauperization of the sector, affecting especially its weaker elements: independent artists and cultural projects.

Each cutback is limiting their means of production, already stifled by an outdated and elitist vision of what culture is. The independent culture not only creates idealistic values but also monetary wealth. Suffocate it to death, involves not only cultural, but also economic impoverishment.

Each shut down of space, each project abandoned for lack of resources, weakens the cultural fabric of a community.